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The
following ideas and resources are offered as a starting place for
brainstorming and developing your own programs that meet the needs
of your students, their families, and schools. The most successful
programs incorporate the Six Standards for Parental Involvement.
These standards are listed below with suggested ways to implement
them.
1.
Communication. Communication between school and home
is 2-way, meaningful and frequent.
- Survey
your community to identify areas of interest for Education Enrichment.
- Discuss
needs with staff and School Council with regard School Improvement
Plan, school-wide goals, and other curriculum needs.
- Be
sure to offer translated materials for those families with limited
English skills.
- Use
every method to market and promote your program to your parents,
staff, students, and community, including:
- school
or PTA newsletters,
- e-newsletters
(email),
- posters,
- flyers,
- school
sign,
- school
PA announcements,
- bulletin
boards,
- PTA
meetings,
- phone
trees/electronic phone calling systems,
- student-produced
TV shows, and
- video
message systems, etc.
- Be
sure to survey participants for feedback after the program is
finished.
2.
Parenting. Parenting skills are promoted and supported.
Parent
education is often the most overlooked part of enrichment programs.
Here are some ideas:
- Include
parent education activities and resources as part of every program
goal. This could include:
- newsletter
articles,
- pamphlet
distribution,
- parent
resource center books, pamphlets, videos/DVDs, tapes/CDs,
- take-home
materials from Family Night events, and
- workshops/seminars.
Parenting
workshops can be the most difficult to draw participation. Look
for ways to minimize the barriers to participation, such as:
- Offer
parenting seminars at times and dates that will serve a variety
of parent schedules and constraints. A parent survey at the beginning
of the year can help identify the best times and days.
- Work
with your school staff, local high school, or other volunteer
organizations to provide free childcare services so that parents
with young children can attend parenting seminars.
- Parent
seminars that offer related student programming are great ways
to get parents to attend.
- Hold
the event in a facility closer or more familiar to your families
(e.g., church meeting room, apartment complex community room).
- Consider
asking for RSVPs, especially if hand-outs or other materials will
be distributed. This will prevent either having too few or too
many.
- Work
with your local school district to provide bus transportation
to parent and family events if transportation is an issue within
your school community.
- Offer
dinner or breakfast so that families do not have to choose between
attending and meals.
- Arrange
for translators for those parents whose English skills are limited.
3.
Student Learning. Parents are an integral role in assisting
student learning.
Giving
parents the tools to help their students excel is a key component
to student achievement. There are many ways you can encourage parents
in this area:
- Include
take-home discussion material or activities in every program to
allow parents to be involved in learning with their students.
For
example, a "My Hero" essay contest to support character education
and writing skills could include the following materials with its
contest rules to help parents work with their students to produce
a thoughtful, well-written essay:
- Parent
Hero Interview - a sheet of questions that students can use to
interview parents about their own personal heroes and the impact
these heroes had on their lives
- Character
Education Words: Definitions and examples appropriate to the student
grade level to help students and parents understand character
words
- Suggested
stories and books with reading guides for talking about heroes
- Graphic
Organizer: Helps students organize essay ideas for use in writing
- Helpful
web sites, for example, to help students and parents with grammar
and punctuation rules
4.
Volunteering. Parents are welcome in the school and
their support and assistance are sought.
- Find
ways to allow volunteers of every schedule, interest, talent to
be part of the development, implementation, or evaluation of your
program.
- The
many tasks that need to be completed for successful Education
Enrichment program can be accomplished outside of the school building
and hours making it easy for any parent to volunteer to help.
Identify the tasks that need to be accomplished to make your program
a success and recruit volunteers able and willing to take on some
of the responsibilities. Some typical program needs could include:
- Resource
materials (e.g., Internet sites for use at home, reprintable
parenting articles)
- Marketing
materials (see "Communication" above)
- Community
collaboration (e.g., food or prize donations, identifying and
arranging speaker, tutors, readers)
- Logistics
(e.g., for setting up a Family Night - room reservation, RSVPs,
providing food, materials or prizes)
- Program
content (e.g., experiment ideas for Science Night)
5.
School Decision-making and Advocacy. Parents are full
partners in the decisions that affect children and families.
- Work
with your school staff to build programs and create program materials
that support required curriculum, school-wide academic goals,
and teachers' lesson plans.
- Invite
staff members who can serve as champions, school liaisons, and
subject matter experts to join your committee.
- Consult
with your School Council on program needs and support ideas.
6.
Community Collaboration. Community resources are used
to strengthen schools, families, and student learning.
Use
your local community as a resource for:
- volunteers
to help organize programs or serve as "worker bees,"
- program
sponsors (providing resources of any nature),
- expertise,
- merchandise/services,
- grant
money,
- discounts
for educational materials, services, supplies
- speakers,
and
- community-based
family learning activities.
SUGGESTED
RESOURCES
- National
PTA offers the following leadership resources for PTA members:
- Education
Enrichment Ideas
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